Smart City’s application process took more than two-and-a-half years to be completed, not 60 days as the Labour Party has claimed.
Konrad Mizzi, Labour’s energy proposal frontman, has said his party was confident the project to build a 200MW power station and an LNG storage and re-gasification facility in Delimara could be delivered by March 2015 with all permits included.
The Nationalist Party, a former Enemalta chairman and various experts have expressed doubts on the possibility of completing such a development within two years, particularly if no permits are yet available.
But Dr Mizzi insisted Labour was planning “a fast-track approach” for development permits “like the one used for Smart City” and would target a 60-day planning approval deadline.
A breakdown of the Smart City planning process obtained from Mepa showed it took 31 months for the Dubai-based company to start the actual construction on its site from the day it submitted an application to the planning authorities.
Although Mepa considered Smart City to be a priority, the complicated process – which included changes to the local plan, approval by Parliament, an Environmental Impact Statement and an obligatory public consultation – was only complete after more than two-and-a-half years.
Mepa said it could “guarantee that applications for a full development permit would be processed and determined within a 60-day period from submissions” only when all these stages were over and an outline development permit was issued.
Despite this guarantee, data submitted by the authority shows there were many instances where full development permits for various phases of the project were granted much later than the 60-day period, sometimes even more than seven months from the submission of an application, due to various legal requirements.
Data on the Delimara power station extension, a smaller project than Labour’s proposal, shows infrastructure works alone (separate from the planning process) took more than two years to complete from the date Mepa granted the full development permit in May 2010.
Before that, the planning process took almost five years due to a complicated tendering process hundered by objections and appeals by the unsuccessful bidders.
Apart from the normal development process (see table), EU law requires a power plant to have an Integrated Prevention Pollution and Control Permit to operate.
This application took more than two years to complete and a permit was only granted for the extension last July. According to Labour’s plans, the entire energy project will be awarded to the private sector through an expression of interest to be issued in April. Labour stated it would not issue a public tender.
Smart City development procedure
March 2006: Draft Project Description Statement
July 2006: Parliament approves scheme extension to Grand Harbourlocal plan
October 2006: Publication of draft policy document
February 2007: Mepa approves amendments to local plan
March 2007: Final Project Description Statement approved by Parliament
April 2007: Ministerial approval of amendments to local plan
May 2007: Launch of public consultation on terms of Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
June 2007: Notification on EIS terms
December 2007: Applicant presents first draft of EIS
June 2008: Submission of final EIS draft
August 2008: Public consultation on EIS starts
September 2008: Public hearing on EIS
October 2008: Mepa discusses and grants Outline Development permit
Extension of Delimara power station
August 2005: Submission of outline planning application
December 2005: Draft Project Description Statement
November 2007: Final Project Description Statement
December 2007: Submission of PDS for public consultation
March 2008: Terms of reference on Environment Impact Statement (EIS)
August 2009: First draft of EIS
October 2009: Submission of certified EIS for public consultation
December 2009: Public hearing on EIS
May 2010: Mepa discusses and grants full development permit